A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Roper, Margaret
ROPER, MARGARET,
Eldest daughter of Sir Thomas More, was a woman of fine mind and charming disposition, the delight and comfort of her celebrated father. The greatest care was taken in her education; and she became learned in Greek, Latin, many of the sciences, and music. Erasmus wrote a letter to her, As a woman famous not only for virtue and piety, but for solid learning. Cardinal Pope was so delighted with the elegance of her Latin style, that he could not believe it was the production of a woman. She married William Roper, Esq., of Well-hall, in the parish of Eltham, in Kent; she died in 1544, and was buried at St. Dunstan's church, in Canterbury, with her father's head in her arms; for she had procured it after it had remained fourteen days on London bridge, and had preserved it in a leaden box, till there was an opportunity of conveying it to Canterbury, to the burial-place of the Ropers. She had five children, one of whom, Mary, was nearly as famous as herself.
Mrs. Roper wrote, in reply to Quintilian, an oration in defence of the rich man, whom he accuses of having poisoned, by venomous flowers in his garden, the poor man's bees. This performance, is said to have rivalled Quintilian's in eloquence. She also wrote two declamations, and translated them into Latin, and composed a treatise "Of the Four Last Things," in which she showed so much strong reasoning and justness of thought, as obliged Sir Thomas to confess its superiority to a discourse which he was himself composing on the same subject. The ecclesiastical history of Eusebius was translated by this lady from the Greek into Latin.